Monday, August 4, 2008

Last Hurrah!

Years ago when I was a kid, Labor Day was the 'Last Hurrah' for summer fun. Everyone loaded up and went on a little vacation to herald in the fall and say goodbye to summer.Those days are long gone.Our kids go back to school this Friday so we took them to Florida for a 3 day weekend to visit my family.

Florida in the summer is so finicky.....there is a saying "if you don't like the weather, stick around...it will change..." And it really did change a lot this weekend. We had lots of rain and lots of sunshine. We managed to work around the weather and take the kids to the beach.They didn't venture far. Thanks to a tropical storm, the surf was rough and full of algae, the red flag was flying and jellyfish were everywhere. The nettles AND the regular jellies you don't mess with.

Dean and my dad chatting....

Curly Girl and Ripstick boy standing 'cheek to cheek' trying to quickly create a hole in the sand between waves......yeah.....didn't work!

Can you tell it was a 'wee bit breezy...' My dad was sweet and went with us to the beach to take pictures and watch the kids play. I'm not 100% sure, but I think he used the word 'frolick' once or twice....

As a family, we all did the normal eat, drink and be merry thing.We went to one of our favorite places to eat. Since I had my camera, I thought a few pictures were in order.

FIRE IN THE HOUSE!

Ripstick Boy and Dean.....RB ate his entire meal, half of mine and part of Curly Girl's. Considering he ordered from the adult menu, we suspect he is headed into another growth spurt!I hope we can continue to afford to feed him!

We did some shopping, ate ice cream and I got to go to a fabric store I don't have available here. At one of the centers we went to, they had a green area to play. Before dinner, we let the kids play in a splash zone. They were told not to get soaked...just play in the area where the water pooled. As Dean and I were chatting, I looked up to see Ripstick Boy standing OVER a fountain. :-)Somehow.....they certainly don't know HOW...but somehow they managed to get soaking wet.I didn't care.....although I will say, they were a bit chilly inside while we ate dinner!Afterwards we went back to the same green zone and bought the kids one of those gigantic flying discs. We watched them as they played with several other children for over an hour. It amazes me how a bunch of kids...strangers really...can meet up and immediately start playing together.I wonder what would happen if an adult walked up to me and said 'Hey, wanna play tag?'

Sounds like a blast! I wish we could afford to vacation. My daughter headed to Florida this summer to spend time with cousins and almost got stuck there when good old uncle lost his j. o. b. Glad to have her home.

Look forward to seeing what you'll do with the fabrics you may have purchased from the shop and what new drawings CG will come up with from the inspiration from the beach.

It looks like you had fun on your last hurrah! Kids can make friends with any kid near them. It's funny that we lose that as adults. I agree that it was easier to make friends when I was younger. Shouldn't we just get better at that as we get older since we would've have lots of opportunities practice? Not so I guess, but I'll play with you....tag you're it!!!!!